My Early Story (28)

 

Coming To Know Jesus - Four

 

I have not always been a good witness for Jesus, O my goodness, No!

 

But, witnessing has been part of the fabric of my life…from the beginning. I shared Jesus with my friends and classmates, I purchased tracts and handled them out, I talked to people at bus stops. I was once at the bus terminal in Friendship Heights on the D.C. – MD. line, where you had to transfer, and was talking to some folks who happened to be Catholic.

 

When I mentioned being “born again” (John Chapter 3), and they told me that that wasn’t in the Catholic Bible, I went into the bookstore that was there and purchased a Roman Catholic Bible and showed them the passage.

 

I have never understood not sharing Jesus with coworkers. If it had not been for a coworker I would not know Jesus. I have worked as a construction laborer, a carpenter, worked in a stone quarry, served as a soldier, as well as a CFO in a high-profile regional firm, and as a COO – and by God’s grace I have seen my positions as first and foremost venues to be the Presence of God to others, places to serve others, pray for others, share Jesus with others, be Jesus to others.

 

To be sure, in my early years I was inconsistent in my living, I don’t want to mislead you. To be sure, I am still on the learning curve of life. However, the workplace has been the primary place of spiritual formation in my life (along with marriage and Chrisitan koinonia) and a place of witness…often long-term relational witness.

 

I was once preparing to leave a firm and knew that there was one lady who I had not shared Jesus with, her name was Julie. I invited her to lunch, which she accepted. At lunch I looked across the table and said, “Julie, I need to apologize to you. We’ve worked together over a year and I’ve never shared the most important part of my life with you. Could I please do that now?”

 

With a smile she said, “Of course,” and we had a sweet time together as I shared my testimony and about Jesus Christ.

 

Now let me remind you, that the quality of my work and my attitude of service toward my coworkers laid the groundwork for this lunch – we cannot separate our work and our actions from our words.

 

The Early Church grew through workplace witness, through witness via commerce. As Michael Green writes (in effect) in his book, Evangelism in the Early Church, “Evangelism in the Early Church was primarily a lay movement.”

 

Perhaps being rooted in Mark 8:34 – 38 has meant that I’ve never expected anything but the Cross in life, service, and witness. What is the point of espousing something that you can’t give your life to? That you can’t give your life for? If Jesus is God, which He is, and if we have truly meant Him and are in a relationship with Him, then we ought to get with the program – He has sent us as the Father has sent Him (John 17:18; 20:21).

 

From the beginning of my life in Christ I have loved hymns. I used to not only carry a Bible, but also a hymnal. Often, when waiting for a bus in D.C. I’d have my hymnal open and sing to the Lord silently, I guess like praying the psalms. Those hymns are embedded in my soul and I still sing them, with renewed and deeper meaning; Jesus is their focus, and the Bible is their foundation.

 

There are so many things to write about, so many things I “see” looking back, but I’d better close this for now. Here is a saying I learned as a teenager, and I still believe it:

 

Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.